The seasons never seem to change where I live and most flowering trees and plants bloom year-round, but yearning for an old-time Spring, I bought some tulips. With closed buds shivering inside a glassed refrigerator, those flowers spoke to me. Sadly, they sat on my counter all day and night in a bowl of water, still bound with yarn in their plastic wrapping.

After binge watching Elizabeth Bennett and her sister Jane cutting flowers in their garden in the Colin Firth version of “Pride and Prejudice,” I finally decided to arrange my flowers. Unbound and recut, the tulips now refused to stand upright, drooping over the vase. Their green leaves stood up but the red buds flopped over – still unopened.

The next morning I found them, now opening and bending upward to the light in a cluster of red, and today I saw this…

A day to celebrate Spring and flowers – whatever you call it. Jeffrey Kent’s book with illustrations by Minako Ishii is a flip picture book that can be read front to back or back to front. With beautiful pictures and explanations, Kent connects the Hawaiian celebration to the British May Day, and includes instructions for making a lei.

Beth Greenway’s A Lei for Every Day is a board book, teaching days of the week with tutu (Hawaiian word for grandmother).

First day of Spring today – the vernal equinox. A new beginning? An end to winter in some places?

What do you read for a new start – excluding self-help books, of course.
How about a taste of Elizabeth Berg’s The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted: And Other Small Acts of Liberation.

Berg offers a collection of 13 short stories, but if you only read the first (title), you will laugh and cry, and probably relate. Instead of a new diet to get ready for summer, try Berg’s short story – with some comfort food while reading.